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Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Getting a Lead

The demon rolled over to go back
to sleep, but Jaelin gripped him by the shoulder and turned him back to face
us. "You must have heard
something," she insisted. "Did
he have any friends? Anyone you
overheard him mention or talk to? Anyone
who visited him?"

"I did see him talking to a
demon from the Department of Housing a little while back," the demon said
slowly. "Seemed to be kind of an
important conversation but you could tell they didn't want anybody to hear
them."

"Did you get a name?"
Jaelin asked.

"If I tell you the name, do
I get to go back to sleep?" he countered.
When I nodded, he said, "I didn’t catch one. Now piss off." He rolled over again.

Taking a page out of the police
procedural dramas my parents used to watch, I said, “Describe him for me. Did
he have any distinguishing characteristics?”

“He was a demon,” the
sleep-deprived witness growled. “He had
arms and legs and he was…I don’t know…greenish, maybe? He was a fucking demon. We didn’t pose for photos.”

"So that’s it? We’re just looking for a green demon from
Housing?" Sylnie summarized disappointedly. She'd been quiet and she seemed extremely
uncomfortable. I wasn't sure if it was
because she was getting jostled a little too lasciviously by the lewder demons,
if she was nervous in her new role as a more active member of the team or if
she was simply embarrassed at being the only demon in the entire barracks
wearing clothing.

“We’ll have to talk to Fikhos,” I
said sourly. “See if he knows
something. And if he doesn’t,” I
continued loudly, “We’ll have to come back here and beat the crap out of this
punk until he decides to remember something useful!” The demon ignored me and pretended to snore.

"Well, it looks like your
investigation is whisking you out of our fair department," Wyver said with
dramatic wording but flat intonation.
"I'm afraid our paths will part here."

"Yeah," I nodded. "A pleasure as always, Wyver."

"Parting is such sweet
sorrow," he replied, adding "sir" as an afterthought before
disappearing.

"A Wyver by any other name
would still be as smug," I muttered to no one in particular. I turned to Jaelin. "I've never been to the Department of
Housing," I told her. "So
you'll have to take me and Sylnie with you when you teleport."

By the time I finished my
sentence, the three of us were standing in what I assumed was the office of
Fikhos, the Director of Housing.